UNITED States military officials believe a house in Fallujah they identified as a hostage centre is where kidnapped Briton Ken Bigley was beheaded last month.

They also believe the site was used to house other hostages, CNN reported yesterday.

Mr Bigley, a 62-year-old civil engineer from Liverpool, was shown being beheaded in a video sent to an Arab TV station in early October. His body has not been recovered. He was kidnapped in Baghdad on September 16 with two American colleagues, Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong, who were also beheaded.

An Iraqi insurgent captured in southern Fallujah on Friday led Iraqi forces to the city centre house where he said a British hostage had been held, as well as other "foreign hostages."

"The Iraqi gave such detailed knowledge of it that US military officials believe him to be credible," CNN reporter Jan Arraf said. ¦ THE Ministry of Defence has launched an investigation after Black Watch soldiers shot dead a man they believed was a suicide bomber.

The man was shot as he drove a car at speed towards a checkpoint near the Black Watch's base at Camp Dogwood, a military spokesman in Iraq said.

The incident happened on November 7.

It took place on a road near the Euphrates river after the soldiers had ordered traffic to stop around 100 yards from the checkpoint.

Traffic had built up and a car in the queue suddenly pulled out and drove towards the checkpoint at speed.

Warning shots were fired but the car continued to accelerate.

The car was then shot at with the chain gun on a Warrior armoured fighting vehicle. The driver was killed.

Believing there may be a bomb in the car, soldiers fired on it with the Warrior's 30mm cannon. They were then ordered to shunt the vehicle with their Warrior to see if it blew up. It did not.

The soldiers then left the scene for another mission. They went back a few days later but the car had gone.